My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto

In 1940 as Nazi troops rolled across Europe, countless Jewish families were forced from their homes into isolated ghettos, labor and concentration camps. In the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, Mendel Grossman refused to surrender to the suffering around him, secretly taking thousands of heartrending photographs documenting the hardship and the struggle for survival woven through the daily lives of the people imprisoned with him. Someday, he hoped, the world would learn the truth. My Secret Camera is his legacy. •An important historical record of life during the Holocaust •Features an introduction by Howard Jacobson, author of The Very Model of a Man and Roots Schmoots: Journeys Among Jews •Features 17 beautifully composed photographs

Children's Books

Smith, Frank Dabba

Arts, Music & Photography

Gulliver Books

Mendel Grossman, one of the many Jews imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto during World War II, was driven by a passion to bear witness to the human suffering that was going on around him. He secretly photographed people and events in the ghetto, leaving a historical record. In this photographic information book, the reader is taken on a journey with Grossman and his camera. The text emphasizes hope for the future, rather than the suffering of the past.

My Secret Camera

History

Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd

Heinemann/Raintree

A follow-up to My Secret Camera, this photographic testimony for children is the inspiring story of Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, a member of one of the wealthiest families in Germany, who risked everything in order to help those who were being persecuted by the Nazis during the Second World War. The Gestapo found out about Elsie's activities, and she was torn from her children and imprisoned in dreadful conditions. The book tells a story of courage and self-sacrifice in a time of great adversity, illustrated with photographs from the Leica archives and from Elsie's own family collection.

Elsie's War: A Story of Courage in Nazi Germany

Lincoln Children's Books

A follow-up to My Secret Camera, this photographic testimony for children is the inspiring story of Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, a member of the wealthy "Leica camera" family, who risked everything in order to help those who were being persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. The Gestapo found out about Elsie's activities, then she was torn from her children and imprisoned in dreadful conditions. The book tells a story of courage and self-sacrifice in a time of great adversity, illustrated with photographs from the Leica archives and from Elsie's own family collection.

Elsie's War

Kuhn-Leitz, Elsie

Literature & Fiction

Mendel Grossman was a prisoner in Poland's Lodz Ghetto for more than four years. His job was to take photographs for work permits, but he also secretly used his camera to record the daily lives of his fellow Jewish residents. These images speak with devastating poignancy of cultural devastation but also of the indomitable spirit of these people. Unrivalled in historical importance and emotional impact, the pictures show grim tableaux of a child clutching a wire fence, soldiers marching through empty streets, crowds moving uneasily toward what is surely deportation. In contrast, there are also intimate scenes of workers smiling as they bake Passover matzoh, and teenagers sharing a private joke. Of the thousands of photographs taken by Grossman, only a small number survived: this book features 17 of the most resonant. Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith provides simple, heartfelt text in the voice of Mendel Grossman; it reminds readers not simply of the horrors of the time but also of the hope and courage that kept humanity going. An appendix tells the fascinating story of how these photographs survived.

Frances Lincoln Children's Books

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Books by Smith, Frank Dabba

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Smith, Frank Dabba. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto

My Secret Camera

My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto

Elsie's War: A Story of Courage in Nazi Germany

Elsie's War

My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto